Introduction: Pongal
Pongal is a harvest festival in Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is also known as “Thai Pongal”. The word ‘Thai’ is one of the names of the months in the Tamil language. In general, people from all over the state pick their crops from their own land in January of each year. Then they celebrate the Pongal to convey their gratitude to the Sun and Livestock who helped with the cultivation. There is a famous quote in Tamil language called “thai piranthaal vazhi pirakkum” which means “all good things will start happening once the Thai month (January) starts / All problems will be solved in a good way”.
four day festival
Thai Pongal is a four day festival. Namely Bogi, Thai Pongal, Perumpongal/Mattu Pongal and Karinaal.
First day: Bogi: people celebrate the bogi by burning old clothes and dresses
Second day: Thai Pongal – Prepare boiled rice and worship the Sun god. This is an act of offering the boiled rice to the Sun.
Third day: Perum Pongal/Mattu Pongal – A kind of preparation of boiled rice (rice extracted from freshly harvested rice) seasoned with cow’s milk (A2). People say “Pongalo Pongal” out loud when the rice boils.
Fourth Day: Karinaal – Play Jallikattu (Bull Taming Sport), Cook Non-Veg etc.
A Tamil joint family celebrates Pongal
I spoke to the head of the family. He said, “The family of my four children and I are gathered here to celebrate. We are around 50 members in our family. Each family contributes 3,500 to 5,000 rupees including my family to make this event great. We bought pots of I mud new every year”. to boil rice, buy new clothes for the male members and new dresses for the female members to wear during this festival. Mattu (cows and bulls) Pongal day is special for us. On this day we bathe our own cattle, paint their horns, decorate them like a god and worship them. We take well-ripe paddy fields, remove the husks to get first-class rice, and use this rice to prepare Pongal. We didn’t try it. First we feed Pongal to each cattle without fail. It is our greatness to show our gratitude because they helped us grow the rice and other vegetables that we eat every day. We then sat in a row to eat. Our family members will look very colorful on this day. I can see smiling face.” Harmony blossoms as we come together to celebrate, he added. I really wanted to eat with them and was waiting for their invitation. At last he invited me to eat. However, I enjoyed the food verities of the village, including Pongal .
Conclution
From my point of view, this is a well known traditional thanksgiving festival of Tamil Nadu. As a Tamil, I look forward to every occasion of the Tamil New Year to see good things happen. I strongly believe in the quote “thai printhaal vazhi pirakkum” as that is how it has been inculcated. There is no room for superstition because you have a logical reason behind this trust. People will obviously make money selling their freshly harvested crops. This amount will help them buy and do good things. Therefore, there is no doubt that auspicious incidents happen. We will meet in another article soon. Thank you for reading.